Revelation 20:11-12

THE FINAL JUDGMENT AND AWARDS, Revelation 20:11 to Revelation 22:5.

1. The throne, the resurrection, and vanishing earth, Revelation 20:11-12.

As we approach the great finalities a change seems to be made in the mode of representation from the symbolical to the more exactly pictorial. Truths are exhibited less by representative images and more by literal presentation. But, 1. This is rather a difference of degree than of kind. A symbol is selected, usually, for some resemblance by which it suggests the symbolized object. A picture, therefore, is only a symbol with an increased amount of resemblance, even until it becomes an exact pictorial likeness of the object. 2. When we come to the last events, symbols grow difficult to comprehend, and direct picture becomes necessary. Even then the picture becomes the best representation of the fact for us, in our present earthly state. What obliges the interpreter to view this exhibition of last things as approaching so near to an exact likeness as to be essentially a literal description of supernal events and objects is the correspondence with other passages of Scripture, which are to be held literal, unless we would lose all certainty of interpretation. John’s pictures of the finality, while more symmetrically pictorial, agree with those of Christ, (John 5:25-29; Matthew 25:31-46;) Paul, (1 Corinthians 15:22-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10;) Peter, (2 Peter 3:7; 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12-13;) John, (Revelation 6:12-17;) and James (James 5:3; James 5:7).